ICANN's Language Services Team has reached one more milestone: we now provide teleconference interpretation support in the six official United Nations (UN) languages and Portuguese. This recent accomplishment is in line with ICANN's Public Responsibility Framework and, more importantly, translates into more community members being able to connect, communicate and interact in a truly multistakeholder and inclusive fashion.
The Language Services Department began providing teleconference interpretation support at the community's request in late 2011. At the time, support was provided in Spanish and French. A lot has happened in the global Internet ecosystem since then, with our community's work and initiatives expanding accordingly. It was only natural that, in line with ICANN's internationalization, and following the creation of our Language Services Team, teleconference interpretation support would be provided in the six official UN languages and Portuguese.
Accomplishing this goal entailed installing and testing specific equipment, training interpreters (both ICANN Language Experts and trusted contractors), and deploying the service. Interpretation into Portuguese [ZIP, 9.8 MB] and Spanish [ZIP, 10.0 MB] was provided on a Business Community Webinar Call [ZIP, 9.7 MB] hosted by Christopher Mondini prior to NETmundial; Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic language interpretation support was provided on the GAC Agenda Setting Calls in preparation for ICANN 50; and Spanish, French and Russian language interpretation support was provided on the ALAC Monthly Call in May. In addition all Pre-ATLAS II Webinar Calls received interpretation support in Spanish and French.
As ICANN's Spanish Language Expert and Head Interpreter, I am indeed grateful for having helped my Department accomplish this significant goal. By providing multilingual teleconference interpretation support to the ICANN community, we not only continue enhancing our language services – we help the community work for our one Internet and for the public benefit.
